


We Were Too Annoying For Prison

by plutosrose



Series: Bucky Barnes Bingo 2020 [5]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: M/M, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Steve making threats and having it being taken as folksy, a sliver of angst, but a happy ending, going to prison with your bf, new identities, television shows based on characters' lives, the importance of making your own choices
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-18
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:34:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26533699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plutosrose/pseuds/plutosrose
Summary: Steve hatches a hare-brained scheme to get himself and Bucky back to the United States - go to prison together.The ridiculously popular television show based on Bucky's life is a little bit more unexpected.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov, Steve Rogers & Sam Wilson, Steve Rogers & Tony Stark
Series: Bucky Barnes Bingo 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1882291
Comments: 20
Kudos: 90
Collections: Bucky Barnes Bingo 2020





	We Were Too Annoying For Prison

**Author's Note:**

> this is dedicated to the incredibly hakanaki who first brought this idea up and then it gave me more ideas and then 8k words later I've committed some crimes with it.

Wakanda was a lot different than Brooklyn, Steve thought. For one, the days in Wakanda were longer and stretched before him, full of possibility.

Unfortunately, he had no idea what to do with them.

He spent a lot of time while Bucky was in cryo taking walks that sometimes stretched for three or four hours, just to have something to do. He’d been thinking of getting out for a long time, nearly every day since he had come out of the ice, but he’d never exactly gotten around to thinking up what he might do when he actually had gotten out.

When Bucky was out of cryo, it got a little bit easier. He started drawing and painting again, trying to distract himself while Bucky was in therapy, trying to ease the guilt that even decades later, he just couldn’t shake.

The first time that Bucky had been about to go to therapy, he’d insisted on being there too, before Bucky had eventually said, “This is something I need to do on my own.” and Steve had very quickly come to the realization that after a lifetime of people not respecting Bucky’s choices, that he shouldn’t contribute to that.

To be sure, there were bad days. There were a lot of bad days. Sometimes Bucky didn’t get out of bed. Sometimes he couldn’t keep food down and walked around their house, curled up in blankets, as white as a sheet.

But there were good days too, here and there. Sometimes more than the bad - days where Bucky would get under the covers with him and he’d read from one of the sci-fi novels that Shuri had had the foresight to leave for them. Other times, he’d recount the plot to a movie that had come out decades earlier that he’d already seen and get to experience it all over again with Bucky (Back to the Future was his current favorite).

His favorite moments, however, were the ones when Bucky curled up against him, and they were able to just sit on the couch together. After decades apart, weeks on the run, and Bucky’s time in cryo, the fact that they were allowed to just sit in silence and be together, without worrying about anything else.

-

“I think about going home sometimes,” Bucky murmured one night, breaking the silence. “I love being here, but I miss it.”

Steve bit his lip as he ran his fingertips along Bucky’s arm. He missed their home too, more times than he could count over the past five years. Brooklyn might have changed since the 1930s, but there was something deep in the city’s bones that felt exactly the same to him.

He let out a sigh. “It’s not fair that you can’t go home. You deserved a choice.”

Bucky looked up at him and shrugged. “This isn’t so bad.”

“But it’s not home.”

Bucky shrugged again. “I’m making my peace with the fact that I won’t be able to go back.”

Steve’s jaw tightened and he looked away. As kind as it was that T’Challa had offered Bucky asylum, asylum meant that he would never get to go home. It was just another choice that had been taken away from him before he’d had a chance to make it for himself.

Bucky reached out and ran a hand along his jawline to bring him back to him. “Hey. This is better than I ever thought I’d get the past couple of years.”

When he pulled him closer for a kiss, Steve thought that maybe, just maybe, he’d be able to let it go.

Unfortunately, he had never exactly learned how to do that.

-

_Associated Press - @APress - June 17_

_@WhiteHouse & @UNSec announce in a press conference that they will seek James Buchanan Barnes’s extradition to the United States. Barnes was once The Winter Soldier & has 24+ confirmed assassinations._

Steve shut the computer as fast as he could and tossed it straight out the window as he tried to get his breathing under control.

Bucky had curled up on the couch after they’d finished watching the second Back to the Future movie together. Steve looked over to see if the crash of metal, plastic, and circuits on their deck had woken him up.

So far, so good.

“Why did you just throw your laptop out the window?” Bucky asked without opening his eyes.

Damnit.

“It’s nothing, Buck, don’t worry about it.”

Bucky opened his eyes and gave him a suspicious look, before he reached over to grab the remote and turn on the television.

The color rapidly drained out of Steve’s face when he realized that it was still tuned to a news channel.

The crawl at the bottom of the screen was unmistakable. _UNITED STATES AND UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL SEEKS EXTRADITION OF FORMER HYDRA OPERATIVE JAMES BUCHANAN BARNES FROM WAKANDA_.

“No,” Bucky muttered weakly, sinking back into the couch and covering his face with his hands.

Steve was sorely tempted to put a hole straight through the television after the news channel showed photos of the attack on the beltway. To act like Bucky had been part of HYDRA when he’d been their victim for seven decades made him feel incandescently angry.

The way that Bucky curled in on himself and refused to say anything for the rest of the day made him feel even angrier.

-

When Steve came back from his run that morning, the television was on and tuned to the same news channel, which was airing a press conference led by Secretary Ross.

“Sergeant James Barnes is a criminal,” Secretary Ross told a throng of reporters as camera flashes went off around him. “We have little evidence of this supposed ‘torture’ by HYDRA--all we know is that these families, our country, and our world deserves to see justice for the crimes committed by this man.”

“You don’t have to watch that, Buck,” Steve gritted his teeth as he stared at the television screen.

Bucky just nodded, before wrapping himself in blankets and slinking off to their shared bedroom to take a nap.

-

It had been about a week of constant news coverage about the possible extradition, including one press conference where an exasperated T’Challa had told a room full of reporters that he refused to be intimidated by the United States government.

“I stand behind my intention to give Sergeant Barnes asylum in Wakanda,” T’Challa said to both of them over dinner. “I’m not going back on that because Secretary Ross or the United Nations wants to bully my country.”

Bucky stared into his plate of food. He was quiet in the way that tended to put Steve on edge--make him uncertain if Bucky was about to remember something he didn’t want to. “This is too much trouble for me.”

Both T’Challa and Steve looked at him.

“Buck, you don’t mean that.”

“I do,” he croaked, shaking his head. He hated the fact that tears were threatening to fall. He hadn’t once cried in Bucharest. Not once. And now here he was, about to cry into his dinner. He took a deep breath and tried to bury the feeling. “It’s too much trouble. I will turn myself in.”

Steve glanced over at T’Challa. “Give us a minute?” he asked, and he nodded.

“I will go and make sure that my sister hasn’t blown up her lab again this week,” he said as he excused himself.

Steve pulled Bucky in close, cradling his face. “I’m going to fix this. We’re going to be able to go home, Buck, I promise.”

-

After they got home, in an effort to cheer Bucky up, he had put the third Back to the Future movie on, but the whole time, his mind was focused on strategy. Bucky had the choice of where home should be taken away from him, and now Secretary Ross and the entire UN Security Council was breathing down T’Challa’s neck. There had to be a way to get around Ross and the UN, while at the same time providing Bucky the kind of choice that he’d been robbed of.

When Bucky fell asleep, he turned the television off and swept him up into his arms to bring him to bed. He shucked off his shirt and curled up beside him, unable to stop himself from continuing to strategize.

It came to him at about three in the morning. The perfect plan. They were definitely going to be able to go home now.

“I have a plan, Buck,” Steve murmured to him when he was fairly confident that Bucky was only pretending to be asleep. “I’m going to get us home.”

“Okay,” Bucky murmured sleepily, and Steve wrapped his arms around him.

“Just trust me, Buck, it’ll work,” he nuzzled against his neck, and for the first time in an entire week, he felt like he could relax.  
-

When Steve finished explaining the plan to him in the morning, Bucky stared at him like he’d grown an extra head.

“You can’t be serious.”

“Incredibly serious.”

“That can’t possibly work.”

“It’s going to, I’ve thought it completely thorough.”

“Bullshit, you’ve never thought a single thing through in your entire life.”

Whenever Bucky made it clear that he remembered something that had happened before HYDRA, Steve was hardly able to stop himself from breaking out into a big, stupid grin, and that moment was no different.

“Just to be sure, maybe we should also have a back-up plan?”

“Buck,” Steve murmured, hands running up his arms until he was able to draw him in for a kiss. “There isn’t a place on earth that can hold us together. It’ll work.”

“Does anyone in the future know that you are absolutely insane?”

“No, they do not. But...after I talk to Ross they might figure it out.”

-

“Captain Rogers, to what do I owe the pleasure?” Secretary Ross said brightly. Steve glared at the receiver. He had decided to take the call in one of the palace’s conference rooms, because the last thing that Bucky needed was to hear a single word from the Secretary.

“I can get The Winter Soldier to come back to the United States--on one condition. We both go to prison together.”

“Well hello to you too, Captain,” Ross chuckled. “That’s an interesting joke, you should tell jokes more often.”

The utter irony of the moment was not lost on him. “I’m not joking, Secretary. You’ve been spending all this time talking about holding Bucky accountable, so I am giving you your one chance to do that.”

Secretary Ross scoffed over the phone. “Look, your proposal is completely unrealistic and unnecessary. I can’t justify that, DOJ can’t justify that, and personally, President Ellis is never going to agree to putting Captain America behind bars with The Winter Soldier.”

“Well,” Steve cleared his throat. “It’s a good thing that I’m not Captain America then.”

Silence followed, before Secretary Ross finally spoke. “How are you suggesting that we play this?”

“I broke the law, arrest me.”

“We pulled out of the Sokovia Accords a week ago,” Secretary Ross said with a sigh. “And like I said a few seconds ago, there is no way that DOJ or the president is going to agree to putting Captain America behind bars.”

Steve tapped his fingers against the table as he tried to think of another option. “So don’t tell anyone where I am. Officially, I’m still in Wakanda, but unofficially, I’m with Bucky.”

He could imagine Secretary Ross right in front of him, scrubbing a hand over his face and trying to contain his anger. These were the moments that he never stopped delighting in, when someone in a position of power was on a razor-thin edge of giving in.

“Okay,” Secretary Ross said suddenly. “That will be the official story. You’re in Wakanda--total comms blackout. You don’t want to speak to the press.”

Steve’s lip twitched upward. “I can do that, I’ll speak to T’Challa before we go.”

“What am I supposed to tell the guards at The Raft?”

The twitch became a full-on smirk. The idea that Ross would pick the exact same place that he’d broken into a few months earlier to hold them was bordering on hysterical, and it was all he could do to stop himself from outright laughing over the phone.

“Tell them that...I am there for their protection.”

-

“So, Bucky and I will be on a plane tomorrow out to The Raft, which will just be used to house us.”

“I see.” T’Challa eyed him warily. “And what is it that you are asking for, Captain Rogers?”

“Officially, I’ll be on a comms blackout. And well, if we’re not out of prison in thirty days, I’d like for you to make my agreement with Secretary Ross public.”

“Oh?” T’Challa’s eyebrows arched. “Is that all?”

Steve shrugged. “Yeah, that’s all.”

“Well,” T’Challa sighed.

“It’s not that we don’t appreciate everything that you’ve done for us,” Steve said suddenly. “Because we really do, it’s just that Bucky wants to go home, and I want him to have a choice over where home is.”

T’Challa nodded, “A man should have that choice. But thank you for giving me thirty days to make a statement.”

Steve grinned. “Yeah, I wouldn’t count on it.”

-

The following day, a jet met them in the Wakandan Royal Family’s private airfield. When Shuri hugged Bucky tightly, Steve felt a sharp pang of guilt over his plan.

Secretary Ross, flanked by five guards, descended from the plane.

“You know,” T’Challa said to Steve as he shook his hand, “I find that man really irritating. Good luck, Captain Rogers.”

Steve nodded as the six of them approached. “Secretary.”

“Captain Rogers.”

He then glanced over at Bucky. “I trust that Captain Rogers explained the terms of our agreement.”

“He did.”

“Do you wish to have an attorney present or to renegotiate those terms?”

“I think I already have a lawyer,” Bucky said, with an unmistakable hint of amusement in his voice. Steve smiled.

Ross, however, missed it, and waved a hand at two of the guards, who set about shackling Bucky’s wrists and legs together.

“What the fuck is this?” Steve hissed at the Secretary.

“Captain Rogers,” the Secretary said with an air of superiority. “You are not a prisoner, but Barnes is.”

“Steve, I’m fine--”

“If there is so much as one fucking scratch on him--”

“Steve, you know I heal as fast as you do.”

“It doesn’t matter, I’ll know.”

“Captain,” the Secretary began, before Steve glared at him.

“Not in our agreement, Secretary,” Steve snapped, as he waved the guards that were on either side of Bucky away and looped his arm through Bucky’s. “Keep your distance or we’re not getting on the fucking plane.”

“Steve,” Bucky was having a hard time hiding his amusement as Steve pulled him toward the plane. “You’re going to make them throw you into a cell next to me.”

Steve just grinned wickedly, finding seats in the middle of the cabin for him and Bucky. When the guards came in after them, the closest they got was sitting across from them.

He made a show of huffing and crossing his arms at their proximity.

Even though Steve had angrily crossed his arms, Bucky’s hand closest to him found his. “I’m fine, this is no worse than anything else that’s ever happened to me.”

“Bucky, that’s not exactly helping, I am thinking about everything that’s ever happened to you now. I can’t believe the American government would treat a POW this way.”

He wasn’t entirely confident, but he was pretty certain that the guard that was sitting opposite them--expressions hidden behind sunglasses--was trying very hard to not show that they were uncomfortable.

-

The Raft was exactly as cold and miserable as he remembered. The guards followed them as they went through the entrance and began to descend into the body of the prison.

Finally, they stopped in front of a cell that opened up for them. They both stepped inside, but not before the guards were back on Bucky, removing the restraints and unhooking another one from the wall.

“He does not need to be restrained in here,” Steve was glaring daggers at the trio of guards that had been stuck to Bucky’s side since they took off from Wakanda and were currently in the process of fitting a shackle around his wrist.

“Steve, it’s fine, they’re just doing their jobs,” Bucky said, holding still in a way that made Steve both want to cry and punch a hole through a wall. “Sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing to _them_? When they’re the ones who choose to take this fucking assignment. They’re the only ones doing a single fucking thing wrong.”

One of the guards tightened the cuff around Bucky’s wrist and made contact for a few seconds before quickly looking away. “Sir.”

-

“I can’t tell if you are just being you or if you’re trying to be you even harder,” Bucky said that night. He was trying hard not to show that he was amused, the same way he did when Steve was five foot nothing and he would run into Steve getting into fights without meaning to find him.

“I’m just being myself,” Steve shrugged from his position on the bed opposite him.

“You’re insufferable is what you are,” Bucky snorted.  
-

A week later, Lopez was off of Rogers/Barnes duty at long last and finally felt like he could breathe again.

“I can’t believe I made Captain America angry enough to swear,” he grumbled, sinking into a chair opposite Mullins and Richards, who had just switched onto security camera duty for the next week.

Mullins drew his lips into a tight line, like he was trying to avoid saying what was on his mind. Richards, however, was much less subtle. “All we did was our job!”

“Theoretically sanctioned by the government,” Mullins said thinly, before raising an eyebrow. “Hang on, isn’t Captain Rogers like...part of the government?”

“I feel like Santa just put me on the permanent naughty list,” Lopez shook his head.

“Also was anyone going to warn me that the Winter Soldier has the saddest eyes on the planet or was I supposed to just feel guilty restraining him?” Mullins asked, turning away from the cameras. “He literally apologized to me when I shackled him. Now I feel like I’m going to hell.”

“Guilty? I was terrified!” Lopez shot back.

“You’re a sucker. You looked at Rogers. That was your mistake,” Richards said, keeping his gaze glued to the security camera.

“Honestly for a second I thought the stupid serum came with actual laser eyes the way he glared at me,” Lopez continued, rolling up the sleeves of his uniform. “Richards I think I need you to check me for burn marks.”

“Fuck off,” Richards snorted.

“I don’t have sad eyes. What do sad eyes look like? What does that mean?”

The voice that came from behind them made each of them widen their eyes.

“Is that--”

“It definitely is--”

“Holy shit we are so fired--”

“Are we though?”

“You’re the one who took your eyes off the cameras.”

“Yeah, but Richards didn’t, and he missed it too.”

“Maybe they were right when they said he was a ghost story.”

Bucky blinked at the three of them.

“What are you doing here? How did you get out?” Lopez asked in a daze.

“I don’t know,” Bucky shrugged. “I think I got lost.”

Mullins peered at him. “How do you get lost in a maximum security facility?”

“I mean, I made a wrong turn, I went outside for a smoke--”

All three of them blinked at him. Richards was the one to speak first. “How do you have cigarettes?”

“How did you get past the security cameras?” Lopez said, wide-eyed.

“How did you get outside?” Mullins asked.

“Yeah, well, classified. And...classified,” Bucky licked his lip. “And of course I had to go outside, Steve has asthma.”

“Captain America doesn’t have--” Lopez began, before Steve was also at the doorway.

“Bucky, I’ve been looking all over for you.”

“You know,” Mullins piped up. “I’m considering changing careers.”

-

Steve could hear Ross’s voice carrying from wherever the guards are taking his call. “How the hell did they get out of their cells?! You’re not telling me that taxpayers paid millions for those to get reinforced only for them to waltz right out, you are not telling me that right now.”

Steve grinned.

-

“Arms off of the bars, Rogers,” the new guard - Jones - on the Rogers/Barnes rotation gestured to the spot where Steve was letting his arms hang through the bars.

“Yeah, sure,” Steve didn’t move. “Anyway, as I was saying, I thought it would be nice if we got omelettes this morning for breakfast.”

“This isn’t a restaurant,” Jones snapped. “This is prison.”

“Right,” Steve nodded. “Anyway, omelettes?”

A few minutes later, Jones stormed into the security camera room. “I’m quitting.”

-

Tony was staring at schematics for a new, more effective wind turbine that he’d pinned to the wall opposite his desk when his phone rang. He let out a sigh - this is what he got for using more old-fashioned methods in his brainstorming sessions.

“I don’t know who let you through, but I specifically asked not to be bothered for the next two hours,” he huffed when he hit the speaker.

“Officially, this phone call isn’t happening,” the voice came from the other end of the line, and already, Tony could feel his legendary impatience about to break records.

“Okay,” Tony chuckled and leaned back in his desk chair. “Then officially, my day isn’t being ruined.”

“Tony.”

Tony tapped the pen that was in his hand against his desk. “To what do I owe the displeasure, Secretary?”

“Very funny,” Ross deadpanned. “I need to talk to you about Captain Rogers.”

“Last I heard the good ol’ captain had relocated to Wakanda. Some kind of love shack in the woods situation.”

There was silence on the other end of the line, before Tony heard the Secretary curse, almost inaudibly. He grinned.

“So, Captain Rogers has not made contact with you?"

“Nope,” Tony said, popping the ‘p’. “I don’t know if you recall, but we had something of a tiny disagreement.”

The Secretary, who was known for approaching diplomatic situations with a military discipline, sounded like he might actually growl at him over the phone.

“Captain Rogers is not in Wakanda, he is on The Raft.”

Tony leaned forward in his chair. A sudden regret - that he had never told Steve that he’d be there when he needed him - bubbled to the surface. “And why would he be there, Secretary?”

“He is accompanying The Winter Soldier.”

Tony let out an exhale and leaned back in his chair, before honest-to-God peels of laughter left him. “You took Cap and his man and you put them in a place that Cap has already broken into. Man Secretary, I can’t see why you’d want to talk to a genius like me about this, it seems like you already have this one all figured out.”

“Not funny.”

“Not trying to be,” Tony said, doing his best to act properly affronted over the phone. “So what’s the problem?”

“The guards at The Raft are going on strike because of him. I need a way to rein him in.”

Tony snorted. “It doesn’t sound like you’ve met Cap, Secretary. If you want, I could introduce you.”

Silence followed. Tony couldn’t tell if he was getting under Ross’s skin, or if he was determined to forge ahead no matter what he threw at him.

“Look Secretary, there have been many times when I have wanted to toss Cap right back in the Arctic where he was found, but since I can’t do that, I have learned to make compromises. You’re the country’s top diplomat, surely you of all people know something about compromises?”

“The problem,” Ross said tightly, “Is that there cannot be any compromises when it comes to detaining The Winter Soldier.”

“It’s actually good you came to me, Secretary, because I am something of an expert in not thinking things through. If you want my advice - my actual advice, then I think you should let them go.”

Ross sputtered. “Tony, I know Captain Rogers is your friend, but I can’t--”

“Yes you can,” Tony sighed. “Because I can tell you how this whole thing is going to play out--either Cap continues to make life at The Raft very frustrating for every one of your employees, which I have a feeling are somewhat hard to come by at that level of clearance--or I accidentally leak files on The Winter Soldier program. Don’t think I can’t find them, either, Secretary, I happen to be very good at using a computer.”

“The administration can’t let The Winter Soldier go,” Ross said finally. “You can’t just get the man who assassinated President Kennedy in prison and then go and let him go.”

“I already explained your options to you, Secretary,” Tony grabbed a small bouncy ball that was resting on his desk and tossed it against the wall. Finally, something interesting was happening during their conversation. “And letting them go might just be your best one. Now can this conversation be over? I’m bored now. Call me back when you decide what you’re going to do. Or don’t, so we don’t have to have a conversation again.”

Secretary Ross swore a lot louder this time and slammed the phone down.

Tony grinned and leaned back in his chair.

-

Fifteen days after entering the raft, Secretary Ross, along with three guards, showed up at their cell.

“Secretary, if I had known that you were going to come and visit us, I would have cleaned up,” Steve said magnanimous, gesturing at the cell. Bucky snorted and didn’t make eye contact with Ross.

“You’re being released,” Ross said in a clipped tone. “Lopez and Mullins will talk you through what will happen next.”

“But you just got here, you don’t want to stay for a cup of coffee or something?”

Steve was fairly certain that he could see a vein bulging in Ross’s forehead. “No, I only stopped off on my way to Jakarta--I need to leave immediately.”

“Well, that’s too bad. Isn’t it Buck?”

“Yeah, too bad,” Bucky grinned.

“Yes, too bad,” Ross grunted, before he turned on his heel and left them with the guards.

Lopez approached cautiously and unhooked the cuff around Bucky’s wrist, as Bucky massaged it, he gestured for them to follow him down the hall.

The small room that Lopez opened had an array of identification documents set out in front of it. “The Secretary wanted me to tell you that while you are being released, The Winter Soldier is officially remaining in government custody. So, DOJ is offering Mr. Barnes several potential new identities to assume after he has been released.”

Steve looked at the identification papers that were laid out in front of them, and then looked at Bucky. “I think Bucky spent a lifetime of being told what to do and who to be, so he should be able to choose his new name.

“I want to be Steve Rogers,” Bucky said without missing a beat, smiling the same charming, mega-watt grin that had allowed him to walk out of Mr. Grover’s store with pockets full of more pennycandy than he’d paid for.

“So you can run up bills in my name, Buck?” Steve gave him a disapproving look. “Not a chance.”

The two guards that had been assigned to provide Bucky with new identification looked between each other like they weren’t sure if they should laugh.

Finally, one of them cleared their throat. “Well, it would be unlikely for you to both be named Steve Rogers, especially if you plan on living together, so maybe it would be a good idea to choose another name?”

“Grant Rogers,” Bucky said, smiling wide and toothy.

Steve glared at him. “I really hate you sometimes, you know that?”

But Bucky’s grin just grew wider.

-

The next morning, they were loaded onto a helicopter that will take them to a government airfield, and then from there, they’ll take a twenty-minute drive to the nearest airport. Relief flooded over him the moment that Bucky was allowed out of the cell without restraints.

“I’m going to count every minute of that drive,” he said to the guard that was seated across from them on the helicopter.

Bucky was sitting next to him, holding on tightly to his new identity documents and elbowed him lightly. “We’re leaving now, quit it. I’m sorry about him, he’s been doing this since he was like...ten.”

“What happened when I was ten?” Steve asked, raising an eyebrow at Bucky.

“You argued with a nun about God.”

Steve blinked. “I can’t believe I don’t remember that.”

-

“It took fifteen days,” Steve said over the phone to T’Challa after they made it through security at the Phoenix International Airport, only getting slightly delayed when the TSA officer giving him a pat down asked for an autograph.

“That white man is insane,” he heard T’Challa tell someone before he hung up.

-

Steve had fully intended to buy a house with his back pay - he’d occasionally looked at real estate prices in Brooklyn, and he found that while inflation in the housing market was insane, he could afford to outright buy a small place for him and Bucky.

Turned out that he didn’t have to.

“Listen Steve,” Tony said to him over the phone when they stopped for a layover in Dallas. “I am not good at apologizing to people, so instead I bought you a house in your old neighborhood. Don’t thank me, unless you want to thank me, because I am always open to being thanked.”

“I can’t take a gift like that.”

“You can and you absolutely will. No take backs.”

When Tony hung up, he sent him the address and photos of the property. Steve almost dropped his phone.

-  
The brownstone was about the same size as the house they’d been living in in Wakanda, framed by large, leafy trees.

“Did we used to live here?”

While Bucky remembered a lot more than the doctors in Wakanda had originally thought that he would, his memories were still jagged at the edges, and occasionally, there would be mis-matched pieces, as though he’d picked up something from someone else’s life and was trying to see if it would fit in his own.

“No, we didn’t. The place where we used to live doesn’t exist anymore.” Even if the house had existed in the 1930s, there’s no way that they would have been able to afford it.

“We don’t have to stay here just because Tony paid for it,” he told Bucky, who was wandering around the first floor in a kind of daze.

Some things were recognizably his, like the record player that now sat by the large window in the living room. The furniture, however, was a lot more colorful than anything he’d owned when he lived in DC or at the Tower, as though someone had thought long and hard about how he, Steve Rogers, might put a house together. A card on the kitchen counter informed him that Pepper had picked out the furnishings that hadn’t already belonged to him.

Maybe this would be good.

“I could sleep for an entire week on this couch,” Bucky announced happily, before flopping down among all of the pillows there. He pulled one to his chest and closed his eyes, and Steve felt so happy and relieved he was nearly overwhelmed by it.

-

One morning when Steve got back from a run, he was greeted with the sight of The Winter Soldier on television, and a voiceover _The deadliest assassin in the twentieth century, more than two dozen murders are now attributed to the HYDRA Operative known as The Winter Soldier._

Without thinking, Steve immediately snatched the remote off the table, holding it almost tight enough to break it.

“Hey, I was watching that! I want to see who plays me,” Bucky protested, grabbing the remote and turning up the volume. Steve felt his stomach tie itself into knots.

On screen, a heavy-set man wearing a Hawaiian shirt and drinking cocktails on the beach was oblivious to the sniper red dot on his chest.

“They’re making a big deal out of that shot, he was sort of an easy target in that shirt,” Bucky shrugged.

Andre Rostov might have been a brutal communist general, but that didn’t make Steve feel any less like he would vomit.

-

“A television series called _Winter’s War_ , based on the life of Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes, the World War II hero that became the HYDRA operative known as the Winter Soldier, has entered into production.”

Steve stopped petting Bucky’s head in his lap to look up at the television. “What?” he hissed out, trying to be quiet so that he wouldn’t wake him up.

He glanced over to where the remote was lying on the end table. It would be a bad idea to turn up the volume, right?

He shook his head and glanced up at the screen.

“Barnes is currently serving ten consecutive life sentences in a highly secure, maximum security facility,” the anchor continued, before turning to her counterpart on the panel. “That’s sure to be interesting, especially after the television special that aired last week.”

“It sure is, Martha,” the man next to her said. “I look forward to seeing it.”

“Like hell you do!” Steve snapped, jumping to his feet with every intention of putting a hole through the television set when Bucky rolled right off of him. “Damnit.”

Bucky stirred, wiping the sleep from his eyes and blinking up at him. “Steve? What’s going on?”

Steve didn’t have enough time to throw the television out the window, so he settled on, “They’re making a television show based off of your life.”

“What?” Bucky’s eyes widened, before he broke into a grin. “That’s amazing!”

“This is not amazing!” Steve shot back. “They’re _using_ your life.”

But Bucky was already on his laptop, excitedly looking up any detail that he could find about the show.

-

Was tracking down actors who would appear in a television show a worse idea than antagonizing the Secretary of State? Maybe. Steve wasn’t sure. But that was how he’d ended up outside of Charles De Leon’s apartment.

Google (which he could use quite well, thank you) told him that Charles was going to be playing Bucky in the upcoming television series _Winter’s War._ To be fair, he did look quite a bit like him, soft dark brown hair and--no, he was not thinking about this, because the last thing that he needed was to get distracted.

All he really knew about him was that he’d been in a lot of art house movies. He was in an adaptation of a Shirley Jackson novel that Lillian from accounting had recommended before Lillian had realized that he’d gone into the ice before the novel was published.

A lot more googling had told him that the cast was staying at the Plaza for the next two weeks as they filmed scenes in the show that were set in New York City.

“Oh my God, you’re Captain America, holy shit--” Charles stared at him.

Steve drew himself up to his full height and puffed out his chest in an attempt to seem as threatening as possible.“If you do this show, I will break your legs.”

“Oh my God it was amazing to meet you--can you sign something for me?”

“No,” Steve managed, rapidly deflating. “I have...a thing. A hero thing. Goodbye. Thank you for your time.”

-

Meeting Francis Meyer went about the same way. He liked to think that Francis didn’t look a thing like him, especially because he was pretty certain that he had better taste in tattoos. He certainly wouldn’t have “St. Steven” tattooed on his forearm like Francis had “St. Francis.”

For a brief moment, he thought that he had maybe chosen something too indirect to say to get his point across. This time, he decided to go with a more direct threat.

“I will kill you if you appear in this television show.”

“Oh my God, can we take a picture together? I can’t believe you’re actually here.”

-

When Steve went downstairs to get a glass of water in the middle of the night, he flicked on the lights and saw Natasha sitting on the couch. “Please tell me that you haven’t been stalking actors, Steve.”

“I haven’t been stalking anyone,” Steve huffed.

Natasha gave him a disapproving look. “Right, so Francis Meyer and Charles De Leon just happened to meet some guy that looked exactly like Captain America.”

“So I might have spoken to them about the show,” Steve shrugged, and Natasha arched a perfectly plucked eyebrow.

“Are you working your way through the cast list or something? I really hope you haven’t gone to try and intimidate Isla Davies.”

Isla Davies’s very first role was going to be Peggy Carter. “No.”

“But you thought about it.”

“Of course I thought about it, what right does anyone have to take Bucky’s life and make it a fucking television show?” Steve hissed.

“It’s a _television show_ , Steve,” Natasha hissed back, standing up now. She was almost a foot shorter than him, but sometimes she seemed just as tall. “This stops now. Consider this your intervention.”

-

“Nat’s here, I’ll be back later!” Bucky called from the living room. Steve had been in the middle of prepping dinner, and as he heard Bucky open the front door and lock it behind him, he noticed the television was still on.

He could deal with that later, he told himself. Besides, Bucky was entitled to a few bad habits, he thought.

That was until he heard:

“I’m here with Charles De Leon, who will be playing the role of Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier in the highly anticipated new television series _Winter’s War._ ”

Steve dropped the knife that he was using to chop up vegetables and immediately ran over to the living room.

Charles De Leon looked a lot like Bucky, Steve thought with a grimace, even if his eye color was wrong.

“Obviously, it’s the role of a lifetime,” Charles said to the woman - Samantha Bradley, Bucky tended to always have her show on. “The chance to play a World War II hero who ended up on the wrong side of history. I am excited to really get in his head and explore his motivations.”

Samantha Bradley nodded at him. “Before the program started, you also mentioned that Captain America came to see you at your home.”

Charles brightened. “Oh yes, yes he did. He told me that he was going to break my legs if I went ahead with being on the show. I think he was trying to tell me to break a leg for good luck, which I thought was very considerate of him.”

Samantha nodded. “How does it feel to have Captain America rooting for you?”

“Oh, it is an absolute honor.”

Steve gritted his teeth.

Samantha then turned to Francis, who was going to be playing him.

“Oh yeah, Captain America visited me too. I was super excited, because I’m a huge fan. He said that he would kill me if I appeared in the series, but I assume that he was trying to tell me that he thought I would kill it, and let me tell you Samantha, I am honored that he cares so much.”

“How about you Isla?” Samantha directed her next question to an up-and-coming British actress who had been cast in the role of Peggy Carter. “How do you feel about your role?”

“Well, I am of course honored to be playing a feminist icon like Margaret Carter. I hope that I will be able to do her justice.”

“Did Captain America visit you as well to wish you luck with the series?” Samantha asked.

“He didn’t visit me, and I really feel as though I’ve been left out.”

Steve crushed his fourth television remote of the week before Samantha Bradley could get out a response.

-

To say that _Winter’s War_ is already massively popular is an understatement.

It seems like every time he turns on the television, there’s an advertisement for it, the Soldier staring at him from the screen before switching to a car commercial. Or a cereal commercial. Or a commercial for another television show. At this point, he’d lost track of the number of commercials that Bucky had caught him glaring at.

Not to mention that there was a hashtag on Twitter or that he was now getting ads for merchandise every time he opened his computer.

When he’d broached the topic with Bucky, Bucky had shrugged. “I kind of want those sweatshirts with my face on it.”

-

As the premiere date of _Winter’s War_ inched closer, Steve couldn’t make his anxiety go away. Every time he tried to distract himself (a couple of months after they’d moved in, he’d bought a small fortune’s worth of art supplies), everything that he tried to draw or paint felt uninspired and boring. Worse were those times when he would just look at a blank canvas and replay the stupid ads over and over in his head.

And somehow, even worse than that, was the fact that Bucky had taken to reading up about each of the actors in the movies and analyzing the predictions that were being made online. “I can’t believe they think Peggy is my love interest,” he’d grumbled at the laptop.

Or

“Wow, I wonder how they’re going to handle the fact that you didn’t used to look like that.”

Or

“Hey, I definitely did not kill this person, I’m going to be so mad if they say I did in the show.”

Or maybe it was the fact that when the day of the premiere did come up, Bucky announced that he was going to watch the show with Natasha and Sam.

“That show should have never been made in the first place!” Steve snapped. “They’re exploiting what happened to you for money. They’re just someone else taking choices away from you.”

“They’re not exploiting me--and besides, this is a once-in-a-lifetime event. Not that long ago we were in prison, and now there’s a television show being made about me in _Hollywood_. The people love me.” Bucky was beaming proudly, and it was hard for Steve to tamp down his impulse to lash out in the only fool-proof way that he knew how.

“The people do not love you! Those same people think you’re serving life sentences in an underwater prison!”

“You know, this hasn’t been about my choices at all,” Bucky snapped. “Your prison plan? That was you. Leaving Wakanda? You again. Not watching this show? Yeah, definitely you.”

Bucky grabbed his sweatshirt off the back of a chair and stormed off. “I’m going to hang out with Sam and Nat tonight, you don’t have to wait for me.”

“Damnit Bucky, wait!” he called after him, almost running straight into Sam.

“Were you yelling ‘the people do not love you’ just now?” Sam asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

“It’s a long story.”

“Yeah, it doesn’t sound that long,” Sam scoffed.

“I hate that stupid tv show, Sam,” he grunted, folding his arms across his chest.

Sam shrugged. “You know, maybe you should let Bucky make his own choices.”

“I--”

“Following your crazy plans isn’t the same thing as letting him make choices,” Sam shot back, and Steve was left standing in their front hall, blinking as the door closed again and suddenly feeling a wave of guilt crash over him.

-

Steve didn’t sleep that night, and Bucky didn’t come home either. It was something of a pattern that they’d followed when they were living together. He’d lash out and say something in a crude and mean way, then Bucky would tense up, announce that he was leaving for the night, and then come back the next morning. Steve still didn’t know where he would go when they’d get into those arguments.

When Bucky opened the door the next morning a few minutes after nine, he looked at Steve (who had done a very poor job of trying to get himself to sleep on the couch) blankly, which was somehow worse than him glaring at him.

“I’m sorry.”

Bucky paused and looked at him more intently.

“I should have listened to you.”

“And?”

“You have to know that I would move heaven and earth for you, Buck. To get you whatever you want.”

Bucky let out a sigh. “I didn’t totally mean what I said. I like being home. I loved Wakanda, but this place is in my blood, and I don’t think there’s a way to change that.”

Steve got up off the couch and wrapped his arms around him. “I’m sorry, I should have listened.”

Bucky relaxed into him, and chuckled. “You know, I can’t believe I got my own show before you.”

“I had like three shows come out about me in the 1970s--one of them was animated and--”

“Shh, don’t take away my moment.”

-

_Winter’s War has a unique combination of drama, intrigue, and real-life backstory to hook you and not let go. It follows James Buchanan Barnes, the best friend of Captain America, and looks at how he went from World War II hero to feared HYDRA assassin._

_De Leon’s Barnes is at once charming as Barnes, and stoic and terrifying as The Winter Soldier. Meyer’s Rogers is commanding and impressive - he also opted to do all of his own stunts during the show. Davies’s Carter is intelligent and brave, while also being unashamedly feminine._

_The romance between Barnes and Carter in Winter’s War…_

Brenda Salazar, The Verge, August 24

“I still can’t believe they made Peggy my love interest,” Bucky shook his head.

And for once, Steve found that he could laugh about the show.

-

“This is a disaster, Steve.”

Steve had barely opened the door before Tony had barrelled inside. It wasn’t even 10 a.m. yet, which meant that whatever had brought Tony to their house had to be bad.

For a brief moment, Steve entertained which world-ending disaster it could have been--he’d seen so many at this point they were starting to feel a little redundant. Before he could guess, however, he had a manilla folder that was full of charts and graphs shoved in his face. “I am being killed by merchandise from _Winter’s War._ ”

“Okay, first of all, I thought that you were here because the apocalypse was happening,” Steve pointed out. “This does not qualify as a disaster.”

“What’s a disaster?” Bucky asked, approaching them wrapped in a large blue blanket.

“Your television show is killing me Barnes. I mean, _Grant._ ”

“I’m sorry my face was made for Hollywood. You know, I was in three movies before this television show,” Bucky pointed out, grinning wickedly.

“There isn’t even an Iron Man television show,” Tony huffed. “He’s out of prison for two minutes and he gets his own television show, I tell you, there’s no justice--”

“--Goodbye Tony,” Steve said suddenly, pushing Tony as he continued to ramble out of their front door.

“Oh thank God,” Bucky grinned. “Thought he would never leave.”

-

A week later, when Bucky and Steve are walking together in Central Park, a couple of teenage girls - blonde and brunette - came up to them.

“Oh my God,” the blonde said. “You look so much like the main character from _Winter’s War._ ”

Steve tensed for a moment before Bucky grinned the same charming smile that he associated with dance halls that hadn’t existed for decades.

“Yeah, I get that a lot,” Bucky said, and the girls smiled bashfully back at him.

“They should have cast you instead!” The blonde said before the brunette carted her off.

Bucky kept a straight face until the girls had receded from view and burst into laughter.

And Steve, for his part, did too.

“The future,” Bucky shook his head.

“The future.”


End file.
